I was at all the practices today except for the first 2 or 3 ice dance couples (I was standing in line getting a latte and a sandwich then), but my brain must not have been that engaged because I don't remember that much about the practices. I'll try to recall the few that I remember.

For the men: Brezina was having a few problems and not his usual accurate self. Verner looked good in his choreograph and presentation but I don't recall much about his jumping. Kozuka seemed to trying a lot of jumps during his run through but had all kinds of problems--coming down awkwardly and popping jumps. I did not watch Hanyu very closely, but I think he did okay. Machida seemed relaxed and was doing nice jumps. Jeremy and Doug looked like they had good practices but Armin seemed to be sitting on the ice a lot when I looked around and saw him.

For the pairs: Montalbano & Krasnopolski had problems with throws and side by side jumps. Everyone else seemed to have good practices. Pang and Tong did some lovely moves together and did great twists and high throws. Volosozhar and Trankov looked strong and had strong lifts. The American pairs seemed to have good practices but nothing special stands out for me.

For dance: Davis and White did not show. Everyone I saw looked good (with the caveat that I don't understand dance that well even though it is one of my favorite disciplines to watch). I was told by CoyoteChris that Zhiganshina and Gazsi looked pretty good and someone else commented that Weaver and Poje looked very strong. It was the first time that I got to see Alessandri and Vaturi and I really enjoyed their practice--they looked like they were really enjoying themselves. Bobrova and Soloviev looked fast and together. Lynn and Logan looked smooth and elegant.

For the ladies: Leonava and Flatt were not there. It was nice to see Yuka Sato at the boards with her two skaters--I think Haruka looked good and Valentina looked quite a bit stronger than when I saw her last. Mae Berenice looked very graceful and had a good run through. It was the first time that I had ever seen Adelina, she looked very strong and accomplished. Christina looked very mature and presented a lovely run through. Ashley looked very fit and had a strong run through. Sarah looked okay but did not stand out and Viktoria looked very fast and positive--I don't remember much about their jumps.

In summary, from my viewpoint (probably biased of course) most everybody seemed to have good practices at their level of accomplishment. The only one that stands out as not practicing anywhere close to how good they should be was Kozuka. I hope he was just having a bad day after a long flight.

I was at all the practices today except for the first 2 or 3 ice dance couples (I was standing in line getting a latte and a sandwich then), but my brain must not have been that engaged because I don't remember that much about the practices. I'll try to recall the few that I remember.

For the men: Brezina was having a few problems and not his usual accurate self. Verner looked good in his choreograph and presentation but I don't recall much about his jumping. Kozuka seemed to trying a lot of jumps during his run through but had all kinds of problems--coming down awkwardly and popping jumps. I did not watch Hanyu very closely, but I think he did okay. Machida seemed relaxed and was doing nice jumps. Jeremy and Doug looked like they had good practices but Armin seemed to be sitting on the ice a lot when I looked around and saw him.

For the pairs: Montalbano & Krasnopolski had problems with throws and side by side jumps. Everyone else seemed to have good practices. Pang and Tong did some lovely moves together and did great twists and high throws. Volosozhar and Trankov looked strong and had strong lifts. The American pairs seemed to have good practices but nothing special stands out for me.

For dance: Davis and White did not show. Everyone I saw looked good (with the caveat that I don't understand dance that well even though it is one of my favorite disciplines to watch). I was told by CoyoteChris that Zhiganshina and Gazsi looked pretty good and someone else commented that Weaver and Poje looked very strong. It was the first time that I got to see Alessandri and Vaturi and I really enjoyed their practice--they looked like they were really enjoying themselves. Bobrova and Soloviev looked fast and together. Lynn and Logan looked smooth and elegant.

For the ladies: Leonava and Flatt were not there. It was nice to see Yuka Sato at the boards with her two skaters--I think Haruka looked good and Valentina looked quite a bit stronger than when I saw her last. Mae Berenice looked very graceful and had a good run through. It was the first time that I had ever seen Adelina, she looked very strong and accomplished. Christina looked very mature and presented a lovely run through. Ashley looked very fit and had a strong run through. Sarah looked okay but did not stand out and Viktoria looked very fast and positive--I don't remember much about their jumps.

In summary, from my viewpoint (probably biased of course) most everybody seemed to have good practices at their level of accomplishment. The only one that stands out as not practicing anywhere close to how good they should be was Kozuka. I hope he was just having a bad day after a long flight.

Any reports about the jumps they tried? Abbott said in the IN article that he's changed his quad technique: how does it look like? Is Flatt still landing 3F and 3Lz? Is Brezina jumping quads, and how does Hanyu's 4S look like? Did Kozuka try the quad in his SP runthrough?

For FSGMT, here is one little excerpt: "Fresh off his win at Finlandia Trophy, Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan was among the abundance of men completing effortless quads, despite a whirlwind day of traveling."

And Lynn Rutherford ‏@LynnRutherford was tweeting a lot yesterday.

Among her comments:
- Kozuka off and on with his quad, couple of hard falls. Hanyu looks solid.
- Brezina working on quad Sal a bit, not too much success yet, but ran through short and his steps looked great.

Leonova probably was not at practices because she missed her flight and had to wait for a later one. She is in Washington now, though. Also, on their way to the US, Bobrova/Soloviev's luggage was misplaced and they were afraid that they lost their skates. But thankfully, they found it and were able to go to practice.

Too early for me to know what I think of their FD although I didn´t like the music before and still don't. I expected a more compelling edit but maybe that's not possible with this score. I´m not really seeing this vast improvement in connection when they are skating but the video is filmed a lot from their back. I do see a lot more gazing at each other and stroking each other during the breaks in skating that I wonder if we´ll be getting behind the curtain shots of them hugging each other to feel each others heartbeat in the future Not sure what I think of this strategy in terms of whether it will work for them.

I have one question for those who have seen the musical. Is Esmeralda dead during the song "Danse mon Esmeralda"? I got that impression from A&P´s exhibition but not here.

Alena Leonova in her blog on rsport.ru wrote that the organization of the event is quite low. The time gap between the training and the competition is only two hours, which doesn't make much sense to go back to the hotel (20-25 minutes drive). Also, there is no place for warming up off-ice. They don't provide drinkng water for skaters and in the room with free food they serve chips, pop-corn and some sources. www.rsport.ru/blogs/20121020/624406165.html